Hot off the heels of the last patent reveal that showed what could be shared computing for consoles, a new patent from Nintendo seems to suggest a controller-like device with a display that’s free-floating within it.

While it’s impossible to say if either of these two new patents that have surfaced over the last weeks are related to the Nintendo NX, it remains a possibility. However, fans should realize that Nintendo is still working on their Quality of Live initiative originally announced by Satoru Iwata, so we could be seeing handheld devices that are related to that.

So what’s the purpose of this patent? Here’s how the text describes it:

A non-limiting example information processing apparatus comprises a housing, and a first portion of the housing is formed in an elliptical form when viewing from the front. A display panel and a touch panel constitute one main surface of the first portion. Holes are formed in left and right end portions of the display panel and the touch panel, and two operation sticks are provided through the two holes. When viewing the first portion from the front, an area except key tops of the operation sticks becomes a display area.

So basically it’s a handheld Vita-like device almost, with a screen that conforms to the shape of the device? Anyone else getting a Tiger Electronics 2.0 vibe from looking at that patent illustration? What do you think about this?